Mutable Tactics closes pre-seed funding round to help military defence drones operate as coordinated teams

Founders of Mutable Tactics. Image courtesy Mutable Tactics

Mutable Tactics, a British robotics autonomy company, has closed a pre‑seed funding round of $2.1m led by Seraphim Space, with support from the UK’s National Security Strategic Investment Fund, Koro, Entrepreneurs First and Transpose. The funding will accelerate development of AI software that allows unmanned systems, such as aerial, maritime, or ground drones, to operate and make decisions even when communications are lost or unreliable.

Defence forces are deploying increasing numbers of unmanned systems across land, sea and air. While sensors and platforms have advanced rapidly, autonomous operating decision‑making has not scaled at the same pace. As a result, deployments often still rely on one operator controlling one system, which limits how many drones can be used effectively at any given time. In contested environments—where communications are degraded, denied or disrupted— systems that depend on constant human control quickly reach their limits.

Mutable Tactics is addressing this challenge by enabling mixed fleets of drones to operate together as a coordinated team, rather than as individually piloted platforms. The company is building an AI‑powered decision layer that sits between the human operator and the robot. This software translates a commander’s high‑level intent and constraints into locally executable actions, allowing drones to adapt to changing conditions and coordinate with one another even when communications or GPS are unreliable.

Rather than depending on constant human input or continuous connectivity, decisions are made locally at the tactical edge, within clearly defined boundaries set by the human operator. The result is scalable human‑machine teaming. One operator can supervise and direct multiple unmanned systems, rather than manually controlling each one. This removes the human bottleneck and allows forces to make effective use of larger numbers of drones in complex and contested environments.

Importantly, Mutable Tactics is designed to maintain meaningful human control at all times. Military officers retain responsibility for mission intent, rules and constraints, and can intervene or assume direct control whenever required. The system is built to adjust smoothly as conditions change—such as when communications or GPS drop in and out—without creating autonomous behaviour that cannot be understood or managed.

Example

Imagine a unit with several drones available, but only one trained operator. The limitation isn’t the number of drones but human attention. That operator can actively control only one system at a time, leaving others underused during critical moments.

With Mutable Tactics, the operator focuses on the highest‑priority task while the [coordination software] manages the remaining drones — guiding movement, adapting to changing conditions, and positioning them appropriately within the commander’s intent and constraints, even when communications or GPS are unreliable. This goes beyond basic autopilot. When the first task is complete, the operator can immediately take direct control of another drone. One person can achieve far more, while remaining fully in control.

Beyond defence, closing the decision gap is foundational to the next generation of robotics and physical AI. As systems move out of controlled environments and into the real world, the ability to make reliable decisions under uncertainty becomes a prerequisite for scale.

Company Background

Mutable Tactics was founded to address a growing gap between the rapid deployment of unmanned systems and the ability of humans to operate them effectively in real operational conditions.  The company was founded in August 2024 by former British Army officer Colin MacLeod and robotics AI specialist Enrique Muñoz de Cote. Colin served on operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, where he saw first‑hand how technology succeeds or fails under pressure. That experience shaped his focus on the realities of modern warfare: limited human attention, degraded communications, and the need for systems that continue to function predictably when conditions deteriorate.

Use of Funds

The pre‑seed funding will be used to expand Mutable Tactics’ engineering team in Cambridge and accelerate development of its decision‑layer software. The funds will focus on developing and validating the technology in collaboration with two key European governments, supporting priority defence missions under real operational conditions. The funding will also support integration work with unmanned‑system partners and preparation for live demonstrations in demanding environments. 

Colin MacLeod, CEO and Co‑Founder of Mutable Tactics, said: “Increasingly, the constraint is no longer hardware but human attention. We can deploy more drones than ever before, yet we still ask operators to control them one by one, often in environments where communications are unreliable. True autonomy breaks that one‑to‑one link, allowing humans to supervise and direct teams of systems rather than individual machines. That shift is essential for supporting modern military missions, where scale, speed and resilience matter, and where operators must remain focused on intent and outcomes rather than manual control.”

Enrique Muñoz de Cote, CTO and Co-founder of Mutable Tactics, said: “There is no single AI technique that solves autonomy. Deep learning allows systems to operate in uncertain, real-world environments, while deterministic AI ensures their behaviour remains explainable and aligned with a commander’s intent. Combining both enables autonomy that is resilient in contested environments while preserving meaningful human control - critical for military deployments. That fusion sits at the core of Mutable Tactics, and the UK’s leadership in probabilistic inference provides an essential foundation for this work.”

Maureen Haverty, Principal at Seraphim Space, said: “Mutable Tactics is building drone autonomy for modern conflicts: contested, jammed, and often GPS-denied environments. Most autonomy assumes clean communications and high-end platforms. Mutable’s software lets low-cost drones operate as coordinated teams when communications degrade, giving operators faster decisions and better outcomes without upgrading every platform. As space investors, we like that the system is designed to keep working across satellite, alternative navigation, and manual modes without changing kit. Colin and Enrique bring a rare mix of battlefield insight and true robotics autonomy expertise.” 

An NSSIF spokesperson said:  ‘We are delighted to invest in Mutable Tactics, a UK company that is addressing a critical bottleneck with an approach designed for real operational constraints. Mutable Tactics’ technology ensures that the UK remains a leader in the development of resilient, explainable and strategic autonomy that can operate in the most challenging environments.’